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Op-Ed: Yes, protect marriage. Let same-sex couples wed.

"Marriage is good for married people, good for kids and good for society.
Public policy should support and reinforce it. On these important points,
Archbishop John C. Nienstedt is surely correct ('Let's protect the meaning of
marriage,' April 28). To help sustain families and to protect marriage, however,
we should do the opposite of what he suggests. We should let gay couples
wed.

"There are about 150,000 gay or lesbian Minnesotans. The 2000 census revealed
that there are about 9,000 same-sex unmarried-partner households in the state.
Whether by adoption or biology, thousands of children here are being raised by
gay parents. Minnesota is also one of about half the states where it is possible
for a same-sex partner to share full legal responsibility with the biological
parent.

"The state encourages the formation of families by same-sex couples. Yet when it comes to
protecting these families in the law, Minnesota treats them as worthless. It
makes no provision for them.

"Marriage offers families irreplaceable legal, care-giving and social support.
Law confers rights and imposes obligations on married people in ways often
designed to sustain them in times of crisis. It also encourages spouses to
commit to each other. It makes them think twice about splitting up. Children are
more secure in households where their parents are married.

"The welfare of gay persons and their children is a material and moral concern
for every humane and civilized citizen. What is Nienstedt's proposal for dealing
with them? So far, he has just one: Retrieve from the dust bin a failed
constitutional amendment excluding them from marriage.

..."Minnesota should follow the lead of the 15 states covering about a fourth of
the U.S. population, along with more than two dozen countries, that have already
recognized the relationships of same-sex couples to some degree. Five states and seven countries now have full
freedom to marry. None of the ill effects hypothesized by Nienstedt has come true.
And this change is increasingly coming through legislatures, not courts.

"The freedom to marry is one of those rare reforms in which every affected person is a
winner and none is a loser. It's win-win."